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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Club Members' Toroweap Excursion - March 2012

The Grand Canyon from Tuckup Trail at Toroweap.

Paul and I (Jerry) got back from our four day and three night hiking/camping
trip on Sunday organized by George McDonald. I’ve attached some photos
below and the gpx files for two of our hikes. To get to Toroweap you
must drive southeast from Saint George for 60 miles on fairly nice dirt
roads. Once you get to Grand Canyon NP the roads turn much worse and
are almost as bad as Rocky Gap Road. We camped within easy walking
distance to the Canyon and Colorado River beneath what is called
Toroweap Point (according to George’s map). We arrived Thursday
afternoon and set up camp. Friday we piled into George’s pickup for the
ride to the Lava Falls Trail head. (Note to Doyle: Lava Falls Rapids
is downstream a couple hundred yards from the trail so I never saw the
rapids.) The following is the harrowing account of our Lava Falls hike:

We got out of George’s pickup about 9:30am on Friday, March 23, 2012
with the intent to hike the 1.5 miles down to the Colorado River. This
would involve dropping about 2500 ft in 1.5 miles. The Lava Falls trail
is particularly dangerous for several reasons. First, the footing is
loose rock and dirt with several scree slopes. Second, the slope is
very severe dropping 2500 ft in 1.5 miles or about a 33 degree slope on
average for the whole hike. Third, the hike goes down at the start
giving the typical hiker a false sense of security since they are going
downhill in the relatively cool morning not realizing they will have to
go back up a severe slope in the hot afternoon. I understand that three
people died on this trail last year.

We started our hike and Pepe shot
down the slope as if fired from a cannon. We didn’t see Pepe again
until he started back up (of course before any of us had reached the
bottom). Paul did his best to follow Pepe but soon lost sight of him.
George and I followed Paul with the seven other slower hikers following
the two of us. On the way down George kept saying how he thought we
were not on the right route down and should be further left on a
well-vegetated ridge. Nevertheless, we kept going down a treacherous
wash following cairns as we went. Paul made his way to a small knob
about two thirds of the way down or 1000 ft above the water. I reached
Paul’s position and then George. Over the next hour hikers straggled to
the impromptu meeting point. I was apprehensive at this juncture since
it was getting hot and it was also almost 12 noon. I had also thrust
my foot into a cactus the previous night and my right angle was swollen
and sore. We later determined that it was slightly infected. Also, I
had neglected to check my water and some had leaked out of my bladder
giving me only a liter and a half at that point in the hike.

The Grand Canyon from Tuckup Trail at Toroweap.

When
everybody reached the meeting point we took a census on people’s ability
and willingness to continue down. I had a particularly ominous feeling
and decided it was better if I started back up. The two young
Austrians, Natalie and Michael, were enthusiastic to continue but had
only about a liter of water between the two. I convinced them to follow
me back up. Bill, an older gentlemen, also decided to go back up with
me. Matt, a young man albeit a non-hiker, also decided it was
best if he went back with me. He was the last to reach the meeting
place at about 12:20pm.

The rest of the hikers decided to
continue. They started down from the meeting point about 1000 ft above
the water at around 12:15pm. George had warned everybody that the way
down from there was even more dangerous than before. George put me in
charge of the small group heading back up from the meeting point. I
decided to follow the cairns that were going up where George said the
trail should have been. Immediately after we had started up Bill
decided to go off on his own. I
was worried about Bill. He is a seasoned hiker but he is a
septuagenarian. Matt got slower. We were half way up the
vegetated ridge when Natalie suddenly fell to the ground and said she
was sick and couldn’t continue. Her boy friend Michael rushed up from
below and gave her some of his water. Matt joined us and gave us a
Mylar emergency blanket which we used as a sun shield for Natalie. I
was starting to get very worried. We had at least a 1500 ft, very
difficult climb ahead of us with very little water left.

I told
everyone in my group to stay put and rest while I made sure our route
connected with the route we had taken down. I followed the well-cairned
route up to where it joined the route we had taken down then went back
to my group to help them the rest of the way up. We went slowly up the
trail. I had to loan Matt and Natalie some of my water because they had
run out. When we got near the top I ran to George’s truck and got some
bottles of water that George had brought along and then ran back to
Matt and Natalie so that they would not become dehydrated. We reached
the truck about 2:45pm. At about 3:30pm Bill showed up and I was
relieved to see him. The next to straggle up was John who had not gone
down the whole way. Paul arrived around 4pm. In the meantime Pepe had
gone off to climb Vulcan’s Throne, had returned, and set off with some
water bottles to find George and the rest of the group. Pepe had
returned saying he couldn’t even see the other people although he had
gone down about half way. Everybody was back now except for George and
two women, one was Matt’s wife, Magda. The other was Nga Lam, an asian
woman. We sat together trying to plan out what we might do if George
doesn’t show up. We doubted that Search and Rescue would be able to
help since it was very late in the day and there were signs saying that
you had to “self rescue”, whatever that means. We decided we would wait
until 8pm until we left and then go to the Ranger station. George had
given me his car keys so we could leave although nobody wanted to. It
wasn’t until about 5:30pm that we saw George and the women come over the
rise. They still had about a quarter mile left but were apparently
safe. Everyone cheered. We were somewhat flabbergasted when George
started posing for pictures with Pepe about half the way up the final
ridgeline. It was starting to get dark. George and the women finally
reached the trailhead with George complaining that he had strained his
back badly and was having a lot of pain. We took a final group picture
in the fading light and everyone was happy the hike was over. It had
taken George and the women more than 8 hours to go 3 miles. George and
Paul agreed that they were not going to do the Lava Falls hike for
another 45 years.

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As a group of people who have climbed over the age 50 mark and still have very young hearts (pun intended), we welcome new members and guests to our club. It is easy to join. Just show up at a hike rated leisurely and pay your yearly dues of $5. If you aren't sure about it, be our guest for one hike. You will be required to sign a waiver of liability and a release of your image to be used on this website if you happen to walk inadvertently in front of a camera.

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Points to Ponder

Dogs solution for stress: if you cannot eat it, if you cannot play with it, pee on it and walk away.